I, and others elsewhere, have had some questions about the Sportster (and Handi-Rifle in general) barrels. Some have queried about the barrel material, some asked about rifling, and I was concerned about my own .22LR barrel that rings like a chime when tapped, but my WMR is flat. The consensus is that the info coming out of Customer Service at Madison isn't so good. Today I received this from the gunsmith at Remington/H&R, Ilion concerning the present barrels:

"... Remington makes the barrels. The rifling is hammer forged, The steel used is 4140, it is tempered and then annealed, they are not stress relieved. I have not found any difference in accuracy with or with out barrel resonance." - Brian@Remington

The gunsmith at Remington/H&R, Ilion checked his notes and corrected his info yesterday: the rimfires and shotguns are 1137 medium carbon steel, the centerfire Handi-Rifles are 4140 chro-moly steel. As before, all barrels are now made by Remington and hammer-forged.